100 Words About Each Team's Offseason Thus Far
Posted: Wed Dec 09, 2020 3:06 am
100 Words About Each Team’s Offseason Thus Far
As planet PBSL goes whirling around the sim sun to season 49, and 43 year old Andrew Wiggins still wants to play fake basketball, we find ourselves once again in the funnest part of the sim-season, the offseason. Furthermore, the funnest parts are over. As of this writing, we’re through UFA round 2, and all the blue players are gone. We’ve got boring-ass UFA day 3 left, where half the teams will make me manually enter 10 vet mins to sign one of 15 green players who will probably get hit in TC, so they can make me cut them. We’ve got, as I just mentioned, training camp, the part of the league where everyone is filled with existential dread—the only salve being the promise of a Dr. Kavarga preseason presser.
But already, a lot has happened. The Bulls, for example, have put together the most expensive team in the league so far, and thus, their GM (me) needs to keep pounding out those points so he (I) doesn’t (don’t) end up in tax prison, where I’d have to try (and fail) to beat up the most muscular guy in tax jail (Scott) to earn tax respect. So rather than that, I’m going to be helping YOU understand what happened so far by summarizing each team’s movements so far in no more and no less than 100 words. That way, you can all get on with more important things than analyzing the league, like literally anything else.
MINNESOTA TIMBERWOLVES
After a trip to the conference finals, the Timberwolves had two offseason goals: stay competitive and don't break the bank. They lost Isaiah Stewart to a severe overpay but managed to keep Jerry West for a cool 10 mil. They swapped Brandon Clarke to the Pistons for Corey Brooks and about 20 million dollars in cap savings so they could nab Timo Cruz with their MLE. The Wolves look about as solid as last season, which is very good, but their young players will have to make great progress in TC to offset veteran decline in order to go further.
OKLAHOMA CITY THUNDER
Last season, OKC attempted a late push to make the playoffs and came up just short. After trading Nesmith and their 2039 first for Scott Leonard, it appears they’re shooting at the same target—aiming for a low seed without an overpowering roster to guarantee playoff contention. OKC also traded Scot Bulter to the Knicks for pseudo-PG Brooks Jackson, traded up in the draft for Makur Maker, and re-signed Kerry Powell, Pistol Pete, and Clifton Cage. The team's success still banks on the progress of Zaire Wade, but he's no superstar yet, and there isn't another true alpha on the squad.
INDIANA PACERS
I've been in this league for almost 30 seasons, and I can't recall seeing the Pacers being in the tax. After significantly improving their PG situation by trading for Ja Morant, they matched a near-max on Mamadi Diakite in RFA, putting them over the apron with several roster spots open. Without MLE access, their only options were vet mins and bird rights, and Bjorn Ironside proved too expensive to retain. That could be the difference maker because without him rounding out the lineup, I don't think the Pacers will perform well enough for Pauly to resist the urge to sell.
BROOKLYN NETS
You have to consider the Nets' offseason to be highly successful. After surging to the playoffs last season, Ed decided to cash in a few chips (Tres Trinkle, Titus Edmundson, points, and a couple of picks), trading for highly ranked SF Joshua Schumann without giving up his best young prospect, Fang Shuo. This prompted the need to go into UFA heavy to ensure he got his frontcourt back in Jame Hector and Kaleb Wesson, who both got hefty, but not unreasonable, 5 year deals. They're going to be much improved from last season, although they're in an incredibly competitive conference.
HOUSTON ROCKETS
The Rockets must have gotten sidetracked going into UFA because they did not submit any bids. After spending some points to get Ernest Long from the Pistons, it looked like the plan for Houston was to compete (as is often the Rockets plan, regardless of whether or not their in the ideal position to do so). RFA came, and they were sure to retain Deni Avdija, but UFA hit, and the Rockets went radio silent, losing both Cam Reddish and the great Boban. Hopefully everything's cool with 78# because this frontcourt heavy team doesn't look poised to make much noise.
PHOENIX SUNS
It's a tumbleweed two-fer! The Suns haven't been the most active sim league team for a while, only coming out of the woodwork reliably in two spots: to stop Doug from relentlessly harassing him with trade offers and the offseason. While the Suns have such a mammoth point bank that they could be good, and they DID win their godawful division last season, losing Jordan Johnson and Ben Franklin to the Pelicans after they both declined supermaxes in subsequent years might've killed Garrett's spirit. The Suns did nothing, and it might be time to start looking for a new GM.
SAN ANTONIO SPURS
While the Spurs were purposefully tanking last season, the combo of Daniel Yandell and Jonathan Lewis promised a bright future. Both were young and on the same timetable (and ready to win now, too). When Eazy split the tandem up by trading Lewis to the Kings, it was a shock, but the return (Dorian Whitley, Gerano Montoya, and some points) made it at least understandable. The Spurs signed some talent here and there during UFA (most notably, Chris Guyer), but nothing else that would move the needle. I'd imagine that Yandell is also gone if the right deal comes along.
TORONTO RAPTORS
While the Raptors will still be a good team, their offseason was definitely lackluster. Training camp might be their only redemption if their young core still has ceiling space. After exercising Ciriaco Izquierdo, they failed to make a qualifying offer and lost him for nothing. Granted, he wasn't a major piece of their future, and Geoff might have been fishing for a few sign-and-trade points, but UFA was a wreck. The Raptors could have retained Jaren Jackson Jr, but didn't, and they had MLE money that went untouched. Without much of a frontcourt, the Raptors aren't taking any steps forward.
MIAMI HEAT
There ain't much you can do in tax jail, but the Heat still did their due diligence. Spraying vet mins netted them Chris Pallies, which makes their offseason more successful than plenty of teams above them on this list. Their biggest move was dealing Michael Morley and getting a return of Zack Keller, another 1st to add to their stockpile, and 10 points to chip away at that tax bill. The Heat won't be a contender any time soon, but He Hor is still o/p, so they're only/priority is getting out of tax trouble before He's RFA year.
UTAH JAZZ
The Jazz hit the offseason head on in terms of climbing the slime power rankings by absolutely traping the Knicks to add the 2nd pick in the draft, Gerry Folse, alongside lotto luck that netted them top pick Alex Caruso. Aside from that, the Jazz are still in a rebuilding mode, meaning they had plenty of cap space to seize up nice mid-level contracts like Bronny James, Udoka Azubuike, and a now rich Isaiah Stewart. They could (and might) decide to fight the Thunder for that 7th seed, but chances are they'll be peddling their wares until the trade deadline.
PHILADELPHIA 76ERS
After finishing with the best record last season, the 76ers had to balance fiscal responsibility with competitiveness (like the Timberwolves before them without as much experience, and perhaps more points spent on training rather than saving acorns), the 76ers played it a little conservative. They only used a third of their MLE (Slim Jenkins) and lost Udoka Azubuike (not for a lack of trying, but the first rule of MLE club is always offer a bird right player of certain value more than the MLE). With such success last season, I would've liked to see Philly push a little harder.
WASHINGTON WIZARDS
The Wizards are a team that likes to be as active as they can in the offseason. Rather than waiting to UFA to spend their MLE, they were the only team to sign someone in RFA (Queen guitarist and SG Brian May) with their MLE. They DID get Paul Cassel back on a solid contract, but come UFA time, it was all mins, all the time. They landed a couple guys in Naz Reid and Thomas Edison and bought Ron McGee from the Mavs, but overall, not a groundbreaking offseason, though with Quintin Kidd, they'll still be a successful team.
LOS ANGELES LAKERS
On paper, if you can't read, the Los Angeles Lakers' team page looks very similar to the Wizards'. Delmar Lopez is their Quintin Kidd and Bias is their Cucone -- although the Lopez is still getting better while Kidd is as good as he's going to get. Thus, the Lakers might pull off a better record if things stay the same. The major coup for the Lakers was picking up Bjorn Ironside, who should hold up well enough to be a complementary starter to Lopez, so another playoff season for LA. However, I'm still not sure why they bothered with Zagars.
ATLANTA HAWKS
The Atlanta Hawks are In tax jail with a life sentence, but Louie's found ways to stay active in spite of that. He churned back some picks during the draft, moving from 4 to 6 to 10, picking up points and Daniel Robinson along the way. Instead of taking on bad contracts, he took on talent to try to eke out extra wins, adding Dominick Cobb to pair along with former Pistons teammate William Jackson. They're both good scorers, but they're getting older and slower, and the Hawks would have more points and less fun if they sold cap space.
MILWAUKEE BUCKS
The Bucks had a pretty successful offseason so far on many fronts. First, they traded Ja Morant for the younger, cheaper John Blakemore. Then, they made the responsible decision to decline the Ferguson Olney max the Kings bid in RFA. In UFA, they snuck in Colby Lopez before resigning Cliff Paugh, Brian Grinder, and De'Aaron Fox (to a large contract that should be worth every penny if he stays healthy). The moves in a vacuum don't necessarily jell, but in isolation, I like each one, and since it's Doug, who knows what the team will look like after trade deadline.
LOS ANGELES CLIPPERS
The Omega Confernce’s LA team has one of the most active GMs in terms of player movement, and this offseason was no different. Because Roberto's got savvy when it comes to trade talks, he was able to move both John Stoll and Dominick Cobb despite both of them having massive contracts. This freed up a lot of space, which he was able to spread out across a wealth of mid-range day one and day two contracts: Grayson Allen, Jaren Jackson Jr., Cam Reddish, Michael Garvin, and Cam Reddish. This team is competitive, but won't go super far without a superstar.
ORLANDO MAGIC
Dishing Richard Hunt and Josh Schumann for a rebuild around Tex Harrison and Ronnie Reynolds, the Magic went young, and they have a bevy of new wings at their disposal in Kostas Antetokounmpo, Bradley Connell, and Tres Trinkle. They didn't make any huge splashes in UFA, but took some shots at sleepers on cheap, short term deals (Darin Tirado, Dominic Haber). Even if these players don't pan out, they give Andy some inexpensive contracts that'll at least be useful as guys with bird rights to fill salary and skate around cap limitations when they're ready to compete in the future.
NEW ORLEANS PELICANS
Grabbing John Stoll is the best move Nick made in the last 3 seasons. He can't really take much credit for maxing Jordan Johnson or Ben Franklin, and he was extremely lucky to land them both, but John Stoll was an active decision he made that seriously upgraded his PG spot (unless he continues to play Haddock at PG and puts Stoll at SG). The Pelicans were ousted in the finals by a Nuggets team that just had a few favorable matchups, and you gotta believe the odds favor them to return, even if they might be hurting for depth.
SACRAMENTO KINGS
With the crop of prospects growing out in Sacramento, it'd be hard for Tani to have a bad offseason, and the Kings didn't. Sure, they signed Olney to a little bit of an overpay with a max, but the right training or TC bump can still find him growing into that contract. He spent big to get Lewis and could easily find another deal to get more competitive a lot faster. UFA didn't do much for him, but depending on how TC goes, he can control the speed at which the Kings become a top tier team again through trades.
DETROIT PISTONS
After saying so long to Ernest Long without even learning how to spell his first name, the tax-delinquent Pistons became a one-stop shop for taking on salary. They still have Brandon Clarke to flip and 53 million in cap space on top of that, despite needing points and not having much else. It won't be a fun season for Pistons fans, but they're putting in the work to get back in black and should have some decent prospects built up for when they're ready to go again in a couple seasons. Now here are nine more words about fake basketball.
CLEVELAND CAVALIERS
As a real life Bulls fan, I can relate to Sim Cavs fans. After a really rough stretch, there's new management, and while things won't be good right away, there's still hope. And there's a lot to learn (like you don't have to read all the way through when you can just Ctrl+F your team). The Cavs made low, long term offers to guys nobody else was going to sign and had plenty of cap, but they won't come back to haunt them. Could be much worse... like signing a geezer to a longterm max right before your first TC.
CHICAGO BULLS
Speaking of the Bulls, I was really looking forward to this offseason because I had a bunch of moves I’d been setting up for a while, and they more or less played out as best as I could’ve hoped. I cashed in some prospects, points, and a pick and got back Richard Hunt and Michael Morley. Using MLE and mins, I picked up Boban, BDJ, and Silva, and even if TC kills 'em, I appreciate that these three are pretty crucial to the PBSL fake player era. But I'd appreciate it a lot more if they all survived. I rule.
PORTLAND TRAILBLAZERS
Another team under new management, the Blazers inherit and subsequently supermax wunderkind Luguentz Dort. Like the Cavs, the Blazers made a handful of low stakes signings when they had a lot of cap space, but that's not the worst problem to have. Ryan tells me that the new GM is very data minded, but without a huge dataset to work with, there aren't many solid conclusions you can reach. Still, Dort will be ready sooner than later, and I want to take advantage of that by surrounding him with support. When Dort starts reaching his potential, it's time to capitalize.
DENVER NUGGETS
Not last but not least, either, we have the reigning champs. The Nuggets were still celebrating championship number 6, so we can give them a break for that. They weren’t able to work out any trades and were only able to retain 2 of their 3 wings in RJ Barrett and Aubrey Bynum, losing out on Colby Lopez. They still have a strong veteran core on the team and enough youth to rebuild around, so they could go either way, but without their pick, they'll be crossing their fingers in Denver for training camp to be both generous and merciful.
NEW YORK KNICKS
And finally, we get to the twisted genius of Dr. Kavarga who came in to wreck free agency by signing the likes of Adam Mokoka, Harold Bye, and Big Mo Degrimonpon in addition to a Big Apple sized heaping of vet mins. Despite having plenty of cap space, early tax delinquency left a lasting impression on the Knicks UFA strategies and tactics. If they were going to keep so much cap space, it makes even less sense to trade Geoff Rickly for Ronald Jordan's less expensive, but less valuable contract (not to mention giving up Folse for Evan). Then again, Dr. K operates on a different level than the rest of us that simply cannot be contained in 100 words.
As planet PBSL goes whirling around the sim sun to season 49, and 43 year old Andrew Wiggins still wants to play fake basketball, we find ourselves once again in the funnest part of the sim-season, the offseason. Furthermore, the funnest parts are over. As of this writing, we’re through UFA round 2, and all the blue players are gone. We’ve got boring-ass UFA day 3 left, where half the teams will make me manually enter 10 vet mins to sign one of 15 green players who will probably get hit in TC, so they can make me cut them. We’ve got, as I just mentioned, training camp, the part of the league where everyone is filled with existential dread—the only salve being the promise of a Dr. Kavarga preseason presser.
But already, a lot has happened. The Bulls, for example, have put together the most expensive team in the league so far, and thus, their GM (me) needs to keep pounding out those points so he (I) doesn’t (don’t) end up in tax prison, where I’d have to try (and fail) to beat up the most muscular guy in tax jail (Scott) to earn tax respect. So rather than that, I’m going to be helping YOU understand what happened so far by summarizing each team’s movements so far in no more and no less than 100 words. That way, you can all get on with more important things than analyzing the league, like literally anything else.
MINNESOTA TIMBERWOLVES
After a trip to the conference finals, the Timberwolves had two offseason goals: stay competitive and don't break the bank. They lost Isaiah Stewart to a severe overpay but managed to keep Jerry West for a cool 10 mil. They swapped Brandon Clarke to the Pistons for Corey Brooks and about 20 million dollars in cap savings so they could nab Timo Cruz with their MLE. The Wolves look about as solid as last season, which is very good, but their young players will have to make great progress in TC to offset veteran decline in order to go further.
OKLAHOMA CITY THUNDER
Last season, OKC attempted a late push to make the playoffs and came up just short. After trading Nesmith and their 2039 first for Scott Leonard, it appears they’re shooting at the same target—aiming for a low seed without an overpowering roster to guarantee playoff contention. OKC also traded Scot Bulter to the Knicks for pseudo-PG Brooks Jackson, traded up in the draft for Makur Maker, and re-signed Kerry Powell, Pistol Pete, and Clifton Cage. The team's success still banks on the progress of Zaire Wade, but he's no superstar yet, and there isn't another true alpha on the squad.
INDIANA PACERS
I've been in this league for almost 30 seasons, and I can't recall seeing the Pacers being in the tax. After significantly improving their PG situation by trading for Ja Morant, they matched a near-max on Mamadi Diakite in RFA, putting them over the apron with several roster spots open. Without MLE access, their only options were vet mins and bird rights, and Bjorn Ironside proved too expensive to retain. That could be the difference maker because without him rounding out the lineup, I don't think the Pacers will perform well enough for Pauly to resist the urge to sell.
BROOKLYN NETS
You have to consider the Nets' offseason to be highly successful. After surging to the playoffs last season, Ed decided to cash in a few chips (Tres Trinkle, Titus Edmundson, points, and a couple of picks), trading for highly ranked SF Joshua Schumann without giving up his best young prospect, Fang Shuo. This prompted the need to go into UFA heavy to ensure he got his frontcourt back in Jame Hector and Kaleb Wesson, who both got hefty, but not unreasonable, 5 year deals. They're going to be much improved from last season, although they're in an incredibly competitive conference.
HOUSTON ROCKETS
The Rockets must have gotten sidetracked going into UFA because they did not submit any bids. After spending some points to get Ernest Long from the Pistons, it looked like the plan for Houston was to compete (as is often the Rockets plan, regardless of whether or not their in the ideal position to do so). RFA came, and they were sure to retain Deni Avdija, but UFA hit, and the Rockets went radio silent, losing both Cam Reddish and the great Boban. Hopefully everything's cool with 78# because this frontcourt heavy team doesn't look poised to make much noise.
PHOENIX SUNS
It's a tumbleweed two-fer! The Suns haven't been the most active sim league team for a while, only coming out of the woodwork reliably in two spots: to stop Doug from relentlessly harassing him with trade offers and the offseason. While the Suns have such a mammoth point bank that they could be good, and they DID win their godawful division last season, losing Jordan Johnson and Ben Franklin to the Pelicans after they both declined supermaxes in subsequent years might've killed Garrett's spirit. The Suns did nothing, and it might be time to start looking for a new GM.
SAN ANTONIO SPURS
While the Spurs were purposefully tanking last season, the combo of Daniel Yandell and Jonathan Lewis promised a bright future. Both were young and on the same timetable (and ready to win now, too). When Eazy split the tandem up by trading Lewis to the Kings, it was a shock, but the return (Dorian Whitley, Gerano Montoya, and some points) made it at least understandable. The Spurs signed some talent here and there during UFA (most notably, Chris Guyer), but nothing else that would move the needle. I'd imagine that Yandell is also gone if the right deal comes along.
TORONTO RAPTORS
While the Raptors will still be a good team, their offseason was definitely lackluster. Training camp might be their only redemption if their young core still has ceiling space. After exercising Ciriaco Izquierdo, they failed to make a qualifying offer and lost him for nothing. Granted, he wasn't a major piece of their future, and Geoff might have been fishing for a few sign-and-trade points, but UFA was a wreck. The Raptors could have retained Jaren Jackson Jr, but didn't, and they had MLE money that went untouched. Without much of a frontcourt, the Raptors aren't taking any steps forward.
MIAMI HEAT
There ain't much you can do in tax jail, but the Heat still did their due diligence. Spraying vet mins netted them Chris Pallies, which makes their offseason more successful than plenty of teams above them on this list. Their biggest move was dealing Michael Morley and getting a return of Zack Keller, another 1st to add to their stockpile, and 10 points to chip away at that tax bill. The Heat won't be a contender any time soon, but He Hor is still o/p, so they're only/priority is getting out of tax trouble before He's RFA year.
UTAH JAZZ
The Jazz hit the offseason head on in terms of climbing the slime power rankings by absolutely traping the Knicks to add the 2nd pick in the draft, Gerry Folse, alongside lotto luck that netted them top pick Alex Caruso. Aside from that, the Jazz are still in a rebuilding mode, meaning they had plenty of cap space to seize up nice mid-level contracts like Bronny James, Udoka Azubuike, and a now rich Isaiah Stewart. They could (and might) decide to fight the Thunder for that 7th seed, but chances are they'll be peddling their wares until the trade deadline.
PHILADELPHIA 76ERS
After finishing with the best record last season, the 76ers had to balance fiscal responsibility with competitiveness (like the Timberwolves before them without as much experience, and perhaps more points spent on training rather than saving acorns), the 76ers played it a little conservative. They only used a third of their MLE (Slim Jenkins) and lost Udoka Azubuike (not for a lack of trying, but the first rule of MLE club is always offer a bird right player of certain value more than the MLE). With such success last season, I would've liked to see Philly push a little harder.
WASHINGTON WIZARDS
The Wizards are a team that likes to be as active as they can in the offseason. Rather than waiting to UFA to spend their MLE, they were the only team to sign someone in RFA (Queen guitarist and SG Brian May) with their MLE. They DID get Paul Cassel back on a solid contract, but come UFA time, it was all mins, all the time. They landed a couple guys in Naz Reid and Thomas Edison and bought Ron McGee from the Mavs, but overall, not a groundbreaking offseason, though with Quintin Kidd, they'll still be a successful team.
LOS ANGELES LAKERS
On paper, if you can't read, the Los Angeles Lakers' team page looks very similar to the Wizards'. Delmar Lopez is their Quintin Kidd and Bias is their Cucone -- although the Lopez is still getting better while Kidd is as good as he's going to get. Thus, the Lakers might pull off a better record if things stay the same. The major coup for the Lakers was picking up Bjorn Ironside, who should hold up well enough to be a complementary starter to Lopez, so another playoff season for LA. However, I'm still not sure why they bothered with Zagars.
ATLANTA HAWKS
The Atlanta Hawks are In tax jail with a life sentence, but Louie's found ways to stay active in spite of that. He churned back some picks during the draft, moving from 4 to 6 to 10, picking up points and Daniel Robinson along the way. Instead of taking on bad contracts, he took on talent to try to eke out extra wins, adding Dominick Cobb to pair along with former Pistons teammate William Jackson. They're both good scorers, but they're getting older and slower, and the Hawks would have more points and less fun if they sold cap space.
MILWAUKEE BUCKS
The Bucks had a pretty successful offseason so far on many fronts. First, they traded Ja Morant for the younger, cheaper John Blakemore. Then, they made the responsible decision to decline the Ferguson Olney max the Kings bid in RFA. In UFA, they snuck in Colby Lopez before resigning Cliff Paugh, Brian Grinder, and De'Aaron Fox (to a large contract that should be worth every penny if he stays healthy). The moves in a vacuum don't necessarily jell, but in isolation, I like each one, and since it's Doug, who knows what the team will look like after trade deadline.
LOS ANGELES CLIPPERS
The Omega Confernce’s LA team has one of the most active GMs in terms of player movement, and this offseason was no different. Because Roberto's got savvy when it comes to trade talks, he was able to move both John Stoll and Dominick Cobb despite both of them having massive contracts. This freed up a lot of space, which he was able to spread out across a wealth of mid-range day one and day two contracts: Grayson Allen, Jaren Jackson Jr., Cam Reddish, Michael Garvin, and Cam Reddish. This team is competitive, but won't go super far without a superstar.
ORLANDO MAGIC
Dishing Richard Hunt and Josh Schumann for a rebuild around Tex Harrison and Ronnie Reynolds, the Magic went young, and they have a bevy of new wings at their disposal in Kostas Antetokounmpo, Bradley Connell, and Tres Trinkle. They didn't make any huge splashes in UFA, but took some shots at sleepers on cheap, short term deals (Darin Tirado, Dominic Haber). Even if these players don't pan out, they give Andy some inexpensive contracts that'll at least be useful as guys with bird rights to fill salary and skate around cap limitations when they're ready to compete in the future.
NEW ORLEANS PELICANS
Grabbing John Stoll is the best move Nick made in the last 3 seasons. He can't really take much credit for maxing Jordan Johnson or Ben Franklin, and he was extremely lucky to land them both, but John Stoll was an active decision he made that seriously upgraded his PG spot (unless he continues to play Haddock at PG and puts Stoll at SG). The Pelicans were ousted in the finals by a Nuggets team that just had a few favorable matchups, and you gotta believe the odds favor them to return, even if they might be hurting for depth.
SACRAMENTO KINGS
With the crop of prospects growing out in Sacramento, it'd be hard for Tani to have a bad offseason, and the Kings didn't. Sure, they signed Olney to a little bit of an overpay with a max, but the right training or TC bump can still find him growing into that contract. He spent big to get Lewis and could easily find another deal to get more competitive a lot faster. UFA didn't do much for him, but depending on how TC goes, he can control the speed at which the Kings become a top tier team again through trades.
DETROIT PISTONS
After saying so long to Ernest Long without even learning how to spell his first name, the tax-delinquent Pistons became a one-stop shop for taking on salary. They still have Brandon Clarke to flip and 53 million in cap space on top of that, despite needing points and not having much else. It won't be a fun season for Pistons fans, but they're putting in the work to get back in black and should have some decent prospects built up for when they're ready to go again in a couple seasons. Now here are nine more words about fake basketball.
CLEVELAND CAVALIERS
As a real life Bulls fan, I can relate to Sim Cavs fans. After a really rough stretch, there's new management, and while things won't be good right away, there's still hope. And there's a lot to learn (like you don't have to read all the way through when you can just Ctrl+F your team). The Cavs made low, long term offers to guys nobody else was going to sign and had plenty of cap, but they won't come back to haunt them. Could be much worse... like signing a geezer to a longterm max right before your first TC.
CHICAGO BULLS
Speaking of the Bulls, I was really looking forward to this offseason because I had a bunch of moves I’d been setting up for a while, and they more or less played out as best as I could’ve hoped. I cashed in some prospects, points, and a pick and got back Richard Hunt and Michael Morley. Using MLE and mins, I picked up Boban, BDJ, and Silva, and even if TC kills 'em, I appreciate that these three are pretty crucial to the PBSL fake player era. But I'd appreciate it a lot more if they all survived. I rule.
PORTLAND TRAILBLAZERS
Another team under new management, the Blazers inherit and subsequently supermax wunderkind Luguentz Dort. Like the Cavs, the Blazers made a handful of low stakes signings when they had a lot of cap space, but that's not the worst problem to have. Ryan tells me that the new GM is very data minded, but without a huge dataset to work with, there aren't many solid conclusions you can reach. Still, Dort will be ready sooner than later, and I want to take advantage of that by surrounding him with support. When Dort starts reaching his potential, it's time to capitalize.
DENVER NUGGETS
Not last but not least, either, we have the reigning champs. The Nuggets were still celebrating championship number 6, so we can give them a break for that. They weren’t able to work out any trades and were only able to retain 2 of their 3 wings in RJ Barrett and Aubrey Bynum, losing out on Colby Lopez. They still have a strong veteran core on the team and enough youth to rebuild around, so they could go either way, but without their pick, they'll be crossing their fingers in Denver for training camp to be both generous and merciful.
NEW YORK KNICKS
And finally, we get to the twisted genius of Dr. Kavarga who came in to wreck free agency by signing the likes of Adam Mokoka, Harold Bye, and Big Mo Degrimonpon in addition to a Big Apple sized heaping of vet mins. Despite having plenty of cap space, early tax delinquency left a lasting impression on the Knicks UFA strategies and tactics. If they were going to keep so much cap space, it makes even less sense to trade Geoff Rickly for Ronald Jordan's less expensive, but less valuable contract (not to mention giving up Folse for Evan). Then again, Dr. K operates on a different level than the rest of us that simply cannot be contained in 100 words.